This week, we're joining a guided tour of the Maine Museum of Political Paleontology. A docent is explaining to a group of schoolchildren what's happening in a scene depicting cave people trying to register to vote.

"That mean-looking creature dressed in the bearskin loincloth and carrying a big club is standing in their way," said the docent. "He's called a 'Charlie Webster' or in Latin, Neanderthalus bumblebrainium, and he's arguing that living in a hole in the hillside does not constitute residency. Charlie's species, the Maine Republican State Committee, lost the power to think logically about 50,000 years ago, after repeatedly banging their heads against big rocks."

The group moved on past a perfectly preserved fossil of the Maine Democratic Party. "This specimen has to be propped up," said the guide, "because it doesn't stand for anything."

Next was a painting showing primitive politicians trapped in what appeared to be a tar pit. The docent explained, "This is a scientifically accurate depiction of several extinct species — such as 'Ethan Strimling,' 'Nick Mavodones,' and 'Mike Brennan' — being sucked down in the 2011 Portland mayoral election by something called 'instant-runoff voting.'"

There were other exhibits showing the sad results of failed evolutionary paths: term limits, public campaign financing, the movement to reduce the size of the Legislature.

Then, in a dim hallway in the back of the building, they came upon a musty relic, displaying the unfortunate results of years of neglect.

"Oh," said the surprised docent, "I didn't realize this was still here. I thought it had been disposed of because it was no longer relevant."

"What is it?" asked one of the little brats, poking at the cobwebbed form. "It looks like a giant mosquito."

"It's a gadfly," the guide said. "In the 20th century, there were lots of them hovering around municipal government in an effort to keep property taxes down. But after Paul LePage got elected governor in 2010, the idea of reducing property taxes died off, and these pests ceased to exist.

"If you were really, really old, you'd probably remember all the talk back in the 1980s and '90s about reforming local levies on houses and land to make them less burdensome to middle-class families, young people, and those on fixed incomes. I think the museum's archives might even have some of those ancient statements on file. Yes, here they are."

In 1989, GOP state Representative Philip Jackson of Harrison was quoted in a Portland Press Herald story as saying, "[E]very community in the state wants some form of property tax relief."

"I want to tell you, there's not a whole lot good to say about the property tax," Bangor City Manager Edward Barrett told the Bangor Daily News in 1993. "Every poll that's ever taken, the property tax is the least popular tax."

In 1998, Portland Mayor George Campbell wrote a newspaper op-ed that claimed, "Reducing property taxes is the highest priority for Maine citizens."

"If we [the Legislature] don't deal with [property tax relief] comprehensively, then you will get a citizen-initiated referendum and [the issue] will be taken away from us," warned Republican state Senator Karl Turner of Cumberland in a 2002 Maine Sunday Telegram story.

"Taxes have to go down," Sheldon Bubier of Greene told the Lewiston Sun Journal in 2004. "We're losing our land to taxes."

A lawyer’s adventures in bad judgment People who know Keven McKenna know he is not a stupid man. Whether or not the Providence attorney, ex-state representative, and Harold Stassen of Providence mayoral races uses good judgment is another question.

Split atop the RI Tea Party The Rhode Island Tea Party, a right-wing assemblage best known for its tax day rally against government spending on the State House steps, was until recently run by three women — Colleen Conley, Marina Peterson and, to a lesser degree, Nan Hayden. But no more.

Gifts of the magi OK, so math isn't Poliquin's strong point. And he's a little shaky on consistency. But are those minor flaws enough to convince Santa to leave coal in his stocking?

Nobody dies Some things in life are essential — beer, the MLB Network, caller ID — and some things aren't — tofu, Jay Leno, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

Interview: Raj Patel "The opposite of consumption is not thrift but generosity; if you look at happiness studies, we are happiest when we give things away rather than when we accumulate or when we don't spend."

Chaos Theory In less than two weeks, when Massachusetts voters elect Martha Coakley to the US Senate — let's not pretend that Republican state senator Scott Brown has any chance of pulling off the monumental upset — they will trigger a massive domino effect that has the state's political class buzzing with anticipation.

SMILING FACES | November 03, 2014 In an attempt to ease the state’s severe cognitive-dissonance shortage, the arbiters of good taste have spent this election season beseeching candidates to practice both civility and sincerity.

REASON HIDDEN | October 24, 2014 Late last year, Michaud publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. The experts were quick to claim it wouldn’t be a big factor in the gubernatorial race.

SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE | October 16, 2014 Want to save the taxpayers of Maine over $60 million? It’s so simple even somebody with no political skills at all can do it.